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Recent Posts
- Climate Change dominates news coverage at expense of other existential planetary boundaries
- Excerpt from “The Geopolitics of Resource Wars”
- Homes & Buildings
- Book Review “The Outlawed Ocean” by Ian Urbina
- Underestimating the Challenges of Avoiding a Ghastly Future
- Motherboards: too complicated to make after oil
- “More and More and More” one of the best books on energy ever written
- The staggering destruction of knowledge by Christians in the Roman Empire
- The staggering cost of Net Zero in Britain
- Why the R/P Reserves to Production ratio does not show when oil will run out
- Catton on Collapse “Bottleneck: Humanity’s Impending Impasse”
- Book Review of Grain Brain: Extraordinary claim not backed up by evidence
- Why did everyone stop talking about Population & Immigration?
- What would happen if trucks stopped running?
- How to survive a nuclear winter
Author Archives: energyskeptic
Millions of Americans have tropical diseases they’re unaware of
MacKenzie, D. December 14, 2013. America’s hidden epidemic. NewScientist. Increasing climate change and poverty are likely to increase the numbers of people with these diseases. An estimated 330,000 US citizens, and possibly as many as a million, carry the parasite … Continue reading
Posted in Disease, Poverty
Tagged climate change, disease, poverty
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Germany’s “Energiewende” may need to be rescued with nonrenewable coal power
[ Below is my summary of The Energiewende is Running Up Against Its Limits (October 24, 2016) by Jeffrey Michel at the Energy Collective. Wealthy, well-educated Germany has tried harder and longer than most nations to make a transition to renewables. … Continue reading
Posted in National Super Grid, Renewable Integration
Tagged coal, electric grid, Energiewende, germany, transmission
1 Comment
Are biofuels a sustainable and viable energy strategy?
Preface. In 2000, Melanie Kenderine at the U.S. Department of energy stated that: “This nation has abundant biomass resources (grasses, trees, agricultural wastes) that have the potential to provide power, fuels, chemicals and other bio-based products” (136). That’s a good … Continue reading
Posted in Biofuels, EROEI Energy Returned on Energy Invested
Tagged biofuel, EROEI, EROI, net energy, subsidies
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Pessimism and Optimism versus Ignorance
Below are my thoughts about whether views based on scientific evidence can be labeled optimistic or pessimistic. Skeptical energy news: 2017-2-7 Renewable Lies And The Deception Of Dutch Commuters Alice Friedemann www.energyskeptic.com author of “When Trucks Stop Running: Energy and … Continue reading
Posted in 2) Overshoot, Critical Thinking
Tagged collapse, ignorance, optimism, peak oil, war
5 Comments
Department of Energy algal biofuels roadmap: A summary
Preface. If you really want to get into the weeds about the details of why algal fuels have failed to produce biofuels, read this 140 page paper. Alice Friedemann www.energyskeptic.com Women in ecology author of 2021 Life After Fossil Fuels: … Continue reading
Richard Heinberg: “An Order of Chaos Please”
[ Richard Heinberg’s article comes after my comments below: It really matters who is in power when the energy crisis hits, because some leaders will soften collapse more than others. Surely right-wing / libertarian “everyone for themselves” leaders will have … Continue reading
Posted in GOVERNMENT, Human Nature, Richard Heinberg
Tagged collapse, government, koch brothers, libertarian, peak oil, politics, richard heinberg
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Dams: last 100-200 years, make floods worse, an environmental disaster, most will soon be past their lifespan
Failing Dams in the news: 2017-2-23: America’s Aging Dams Are in Need of Repair. New York Times. 2017-2-20. California Dam Crisis Could Have Been Averted. A dismissed lawsuit to strengthen the dam because of climate change effects predicted catastrophic flooding. … Continue reading
Posted in Dams
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Kurt Cobb on the true definition of corruption
Kurt Cobb. April 10, 2016. Corruption, resources, climate and systemic risk. resourceinsights.com Corruption is a loaded word. One person’s corruption is another’s sound social policy. Some people believe providing unemployment benefits to laid-off workers corrupts them by making them “lazy.” … Continue reading
Posted in Corruption & Finance, Kurt Cobb
Tagged corruption, sustainability
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When will the corrupt financial system cause another financial collapse?
[ Conventional oil production peaked in 2005-6, so if a financial crash occurs, the net energy cliff will be much steeper on the other side, since new projects won’t get financed, and unconventional oil is very expensive to produce and … Continue reading
Posted in Banking
Tagged banks, corruption
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Pensions face bankruptcy in the future
2016-4-10. US faces disastrous $3.4 trillion pension funding hole. Collective deficit of retirement plans is three times larger than official figures. Financial Times. The US public pension system has developed a $3.4 trillion funding hole that will pile pressure on … Continue reading
Posted in Debt, Ponzi Schemes
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